Pubdate: Sun, 13 May 2012
Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA)
Copyright: 2012 The Fresno Bee
Contact:  http://www.fresnobee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/161
Note: Does not publish letters from outside their circulation area.
Author: Kurtis Alexander

COMPLIANT FRESNO CO. POT GROWER STYMIED

Brian Doyle recently tossed out a Dumpster's worth of marijuana 
plants for fear of being raided by the Fresno County sheriff. He 
calls it a loss of good medicine.

Now he worries about losing his investment of tens of thousands of 
dollars in grow lights, a security system and a lease on a Malaga 
warehouse where he intended to run the county's first legal medical 
marijuana nursery.

Before Doyle could open his business, the Sheriff's Office ordered 
him to pack up -- not because growing marijuana is against the law in 
Fresno County but because the county hasn't put in place the medical 
marijuana rules it adopted last year.

Under the regulations, Doyle can operate a grow site if he has a 
permit. Problem is: the county has no permitting system.

"I've tried and tried to get an application," Doyle said, noting his 
repeated trips to the county's downtown offices. "But when I asked 
for the paperwork, at first they told me there is a moratorium on 
growing. Then, they would say there are things with the ordinance 
that they haven't figured out."

Doyle and others in the local medical marijuana community cry 
conspiracy. They believe the county passed its medical marijuana 
ordinance only to give lip service to state law, which grants sick 
people access to the drug, but with no intention of allowing the 
trade to operate here.

County officials acknowledge they have concerns about the trade, 
among them illegal profiteering and violence. But they say there is 
no hidden agenda to shut out growers who plan to operate under county rules.

Officials say their permitting process remains in development.

Fresno County's medical marijuana ordinance allows indoor 
cultivation, under very strict conditions and with a permit, in a 
handful of industrial areas.

These areas include where Doyle had hoped to operate -- south of 
Fresno, on North Avenue east of Highway 99.

The Board of Supervisors passed the medical marijuana regulations 
last August in response to complaints about marijuana dispensaries 
bringing noise, traffic and petty crime to residential neighborhoods.

Sheriff Margaret Mims backed the regulation as a way to help limit 
traffickers who were selling marijuana for recreational use, but 
under the pretense of medicine.

Unlike dispensaries, which are banned under the law, the grow sites 
defined in the ordinance don't offer storefront sales. They are 
intended to serve only members who join cooperatives established by 
the growers.

Marijuana advocates have criticized the regulations as overly 
restrictive, and only two people, according to county officials, have 
sought permits to run sites. Doyle was one of them.

"I can understand their frustration," said county Auditor-Controller 
Vicki Crow, who handles much of the county's permitting and 
acknowledged the delays. "It did take a little while to write the 
ordinance, and it's been going back and forth between departments for months."

Crow said a permit application has been drafted since Doyle initially 
inquired. However, she said other forms and procedures need to be 
established before a permit can be granted.

Missing, for example, are required liability agreements. Also, no 
permitting fees have been put in place, something the Board of 
Supervisors must do.

County officials say they are continuing to work out the logistics. 
There is no timeline for this to be done.

In the meantime, Mims says she has little choice but to crack down on 
grow sites operating without a permit. She says the permitting 
process, which includes an inspection by her office, is intended to 
make sure sites operate safely and legally. Absent this process, she 
said, sound operations are difficult to ensure.

"I don't think anybody should be planting the marijuana until 
everything gets put in place and gets signed off on," she said.

Doyle acknowledges that he was taking a risk by starting his business 
without a permit. But he says he had no reason to think that if he 
set things up in accordance with the law there would be problems.

"I've gone through their ordinance and I've done everything I'm 
supposed to do," he said, noting his site selection, the security 
system he put in place and the number of plants he made room for. 
"Still, they say if I grow anything they'll swoop down on me."

Shortly after Doyle started cultivating marijuana in March, he 
received a letter from the Sheriff's Office warning him that he was 
in violation of the law. The letter demanded that he remove his 
plants within 14 days.

Doyle complied, leaving an empty warehouse, which he said offered him 
little hope of recovering the costs of his venture.

"I'm livid," he added, "but I'm over the screaming and the yelling."

Local medical marijuana advocate and attorney Bill McPike says the 
county has had plenty of time to put a permitting process in place.

"They've had since August to do this," he said. "This should have been done."

McPike and other advocates say the inability for someone to get a 
permit and legally grow medical marijuana is hardest on residents who 
have come to rely on the drug to treat medical conditions.

Few medical marijuana dispensaries operate legally in Fresno, Tulare 
and Madera counties, forcing patients to turn to the black market or 
go to the Bay Area or Southern California, where sales are legal.

"I'm somebody who really needs to have access," said Fresno resident 
Harriette Schwartz, who suffers from multiple sclerosis. "I'm not a 
teenager running around smoking medical marijuana just because I want 
to sit there with a smile on my face or raid the fridge."

Supervisors Henry Perea and Debbie Poochigian, who pushed for the 
county ordinance last year, said last week that they didn't know why 
a permitting process was not in place.

"I don't want to make it sound like an excuse ... it's taking us a 
little more time to get everything done," said Poochigian, noting 
recent staff cuts and reassignments that have resulted from the 
budget. "I know there's no conscious effort to delay just because 
it's medical marijuana."
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